City prevails in lawsuit ending baseball relationship
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The months-long legal conflict between the City of Kokomo and MKE Baseball has come to an end, and the Kokomo Jackrabbits are no more. Howard Circuit Court Judge Lynne Murray issued a summary judgment on Feb. 24, ending the relationship between the city and the Milwaukee-based team owner.
MKE’s owner, Michael Zimmerman, filed suit against the city on Oct. 31, 2024, alleging that his organization – operating the Kokomo Jackrabbits locally as Kokomo Baseball LLC within holding company ROC Ventures – had verbally renewed a five-year contract to use Kokomo Municipal Stadium to hold Kokomo Jackrabbits baseball games.
The court disagreed.
“Based upon the unambiguous language in the Agreement, the Baseball Entity, Kokomo Baseball, LCC was required to provide written notice to the City by July 2, 2024, if it wanted to exercise its exclusive right to renew the Agreement for the use of the Kokomo Municipal Stadium for another five years,” wrote Murray in her summary judgment. “Kokomo Baseball LLC did not provide timely written notice to the City. The City has not waived the Agreement's requirement of a timely written notice of renewal. The Agreement entered into on July 11, 2014, between the City of Kokomo and the Baseball Entity (Kokomo Baseball, LLC) terminated on September 30, 2024.”
For the city’s part, Mayor Tyler Moore was gratified by the decision rendered by Judge Murray.
“We are pleased with the recent ruling in the City's favor regarding the Jackrabbits lawsuit,” said Moore. “This means we can now move forward with our plans for summer events at Kokomo Municipal Stadium. We are excited to start coordinating with our local leagues and other event coordinators to make sure the stadium is buzzing with activity all summer long.
“While we likely won't have professional baseball at the stadium this summer, we're actively working to identify the right operator to bring professional baseball back to Kokomo in summer of 2026. I would like to thank our community for their patience and support throughout this process. We can't wait to enjoy the summer at KMS with you all!”
The fatal flaw in the Jackrabbits’ argument was the lack of written notice. The city and the Jackrabbits launched their relationship to bring baseball to Kokomo in July 2014. The two entities established a five-year agreement commencing on Oct. 1 of that year. The terms of that agreement established that the Jackrabbits had the exclusive right to renew the agreement for two additional five-year periods, and a third renewal could take place with the agreement of both parties.
“Section C” of that agreement, however, stated that the "Baseball Entity shall exercise its right of renewal by written notice to the City, delivered no later than 90 days prior to the conclusion of the then current term."
Upon the request of the Jackrabbits, the city met with them on May 17, 2024, to discuss renewal of the agreement. The meeting took place over Zoom online, but no records were kept concerning the content of the exchange. Zimmerman contended that he renewed the lease verbally during that meeting.
Mayor Tyler Moore explained during deposition that the meeting addressed maintenance issues at the stadium and that no discussion was conducted concerning a possible termination of the agreement. During the meeting, Moore stated his desire to allow the city more access to the stadium during the summer months to hold concerts and other events.
No further meetings between the Jackrabbits and the city took place, and the city contended that no written notice was ever submitted by the team to renew the agreement. At the close of the 2024 baseball season, the city began making improvements at the stadium in line with the issues identified in May.
On Sept. 18, the city sent notice to the Jackrabbits that the lease agreement would not be renewed, given the lack of a written renewal for the agreement. Two days later, the Jackrabbits stood on the verbal notice given on May 17.
When the agreement expired on Sept. 30, the lawsuit soon followed.
Judge Murray detailed in her findings that the Jackrabbits attempted to stand on the May 2024 e-mail submitted by Kokomo Baseball LLC (Jackrabbits) manager Nathan Martin as written notice of renewal. That argument failed.
“Nathan Martin's April 2024 email requesting a meeting with the City to discuss ‘the lease’ was only an invitation to set a meeting to discuss renewal and other topics,” Murray wrote. “The language of the e-mail falls woefully short of stating an intent to renew by merely listing ‘lease renewal’ as one of the meeting topics.”
Zimmerman also argued during deposition that he intentionally avoided a written renewal of the lease agreement in order to compel the city to make previously agreed improvements to the stadium.
“We were ... we were waiting on proposed changes because the City didn't meet their obligations,” said Zimmerman. “And if they really had no intent of doing the hop yard (a proposed improvement) because that cost more money or doing some of the other things, that we were open to that. We've never … we never got anything back.”
None of that changed the fact that the contract required a written renewal, which never was produced.